Comments on “Internal solitary waves refraction and diffraction from interaction with eddies off the Amazon Shelf from SWOT” by Goret et al.

Based on a combination of Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) and Multiscale Inversion of Ocean Surface Topography (MIOST) surface height observations and MODIS TERRA/AQUA optical images, the authors investigated the internal solitary waves (ISWs) off the Amazon Shelf as well as their interaction with mesoscale eddies near a seamount. They found that the ISW characteristics, including the modal content, propagation direction and wavecrest curvature, are significantly changed after interacting with the mesoscale eddies, which largely depend on the eddy conditions. Overall, the paper is clearly written.

My major concern is about the wavenumber spectra shown in Figure 8 and corresponding descriptions, especially for the internal wave modal content. According to my understanding, mode-3 internal tides (ITs) off the Amazon Shelf may have a horizontal wavelength of approximately 50km. However, it cannot be concluded that any signal with a horizontal wavelength of approximately 50 km corresponds to mode-3 ITs (Line 331). Actually, comparing spectra #2, #3 and #4 as well as the ADT_swot snapshots in Figures 8G and 8H, the peak appearing at approximately 50 km on spectrum #2 might be ISW packets rather than mode-3 ITs. Moreover, the authors mentioned in section 5.4.1 that the mode-3 ITs are reproduced in numerical investigations (Kouogang et al., 2025b, in preparation). I think that it is necessary to show some key results that support the generation of mode-3 ITs in this study or in a supporting material.

My second concern is also related to the no-eddy (NE) case. In both the anticyclonic eddy (AE) and cyclonic eddy (CE) cases, ISW packets are observed prior to encountering the mesoscale eddy/seamount. In the NE case, however, only isolated ISWs are observed before reaching the seamount. To draw robust conclusions regarding the influence of mesoscale eddies on ISWs, it is recommended to identify an example where ISW packets exist before the seamount interaction for the NE case.

Figures 7A-C. It is recommended that the authors present these figures using the same spatial domain, if possible.

There are two “section 5.5” in this paper, with one appearing ahead of “section 5.4”.

Please see the attached document